A commonplace toilet includes a porcelain receptacle or bowl, to the rear of which a seat and a lid are separately attached by means of hinges. There is a sex difference between men and women in which men generally stand at a toilet bowl to micturate, while women sit down. (Both sit down for defaecation, at least in Western cultures). Unless the seat is lifted, urine may if misdirected land on the seat and this is considered extremely unhygienic. There is a tendency amongst men to not lower the seat after use and this is a problem to subsequent users. If the bowl has to be cleaned with such as a brush, the seat should also be lifted in order to avoid drips landing on the seat and for better access. It has been the common practice to raise and lower the toilet seat manually, by grasping the seat end and lifting or lowering the seat edge accordingly. However the toilet seat is one of the most non-sterile items in a house; even more so where a toilet is available for use by the public or a sub-group thereof. People are somewhat disinclined to touch the seat and are more likely to (further) contaminate the seat by failing to lift and lower it.
Installations in (for example) aircraft, trains, restaurants, garages, hospitals and municipal facilities are liable to become highly contaminated, repulsive, and hence comprise public health risks. Many diseases are liable to be spread under these conditions, including the enteric bacterial infections like salmonellosis, and shigellosis; also viruses such as polio-myelitis and some influenzas, and occasionally protozoan and helminth (worm) infections.
There is, therefore, a need to replace the manual control of the toilet seat with an easy, hands-free procedure.
Rubbish bins in which a floor-referenced pedal lifts a lid so that rubbish can be placed inside the bin are well-known, but differ in that the lifting is “momentary” rather than “bistable” (to use electronics terminology) and in that the lifting member can be built under and through the actual bin, whereas toilet bowls cannot be disassembled or drilled in that manner.